The IIHS Postdoctoral Programme has been a space for knowledge creation and learning for early-career scholars for over a decade. Some have transitioned into faculty roles at IIHS, and others have moved to academic and professional trajectories domestically, and across the world. With the IIHS (Institution Deemed to be) University now in place, our Postdoctoral Programme is being refocused to create a cohort of the next generation of IIHS faculty, and to contribute to interdisciplinary faculty development of Indian higher education institutions.

Structure

The IIHS Postdoctoral Programme builds on over a decade of teaching and training young scholars and early career researchers working on urbanisation-related questions across India’s cities, towns and villages, and across the world. These have included spaces for learning from peers, as well as leading global researchers and academics like the IIHS Doctoral Workshop and Urban ARC. It builds on the legacy of our earlier postdoctoral programme, which offered candidates the opportunity to transition to faculty positions within IIHS, or move on to careers at leading domestic and global universities and research institutions.

Over the last fifteen years, IIHS has established itself as a leading interdisciplinary institution in the Global South focusing on challenges and opportunities of local to global change across the city-town-village-semi-wild continuum. A long legacy of impactful research and applied research across multiple scales and thematic sectors, with international and domestic partners, has helped build an institution at the cutting edge of knowledge production, dissemination and application. Several of our long-term research projects such as PEAK Urban,  Urban KNOW, ASSAR and ReSET explicitly focused on building the next generation of scholar-practitioners and researchers.

Our cutting-edge research, teaching, policy, and implementation work is brought together within and across five IIHS interdisciplinary Schools – School of Governance, School of Economic Development, School of Human Development, School of Systems & Infrastructure, and School of Environment & Sustainability, associated Centres, and a set of cross-cutting and linked Labs.

IIHS Schools are home to leading scholars, researcher-practitioners, early career researchers and applied researchers with training from leading Indian and global universities. These Schools are also primary spaces of teaching within the University – currently delivering four Master’s level programmes and a Doctoral programme, soon expanding into five Masters’ programmes and an incipient undergraduate programme. Schools are also primary spaces of Practice/ Applied Research, Capacity Development, and Digital Blended Learning delivery and convergence.

The IIHS Postdoctoral Programme sits at the intersections of these three institutional imperatives – Research, Applied Research, and Teaching. The programme emphasises interdisciplinary research and pedagogy on cities, towns, and villages, and linked social-ecological-technological systems across the entire continuum from the semi-wild to the urban.

The programme will host early career researchers and applied researchers, who will work with identified supervisors at IIHS based on their qualifications, research, and teaching interests. Candidates considered for the programme will have a PhD earned within the previous two years from date of application. Candidates at the submission stage can also apply, subject to completion of all degree requirements.

Teaching experience and publication record will be key criteria for selection, along with an interest in applied research and broadly defined questions across all five IIHS Schools that need the application of interdisciplinarity and heterodox methods and practices. Candidates will be hired into the programme for a one-year period, with a possible extension the year after. This programme is currently open only to Indian citizens.

School themes:

This is an indicative list of areas of work under each of the IIHS Schools mapped onto people. More details for each of these are available through the links provided here.

School of Governance:

• Urban Governance
• Public & Infrastructure Finance
• Infrastructure Regulation & Decarbonisation
• Materials Governance & Sustainable Development
• Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development

School of Economic Development:

• Urban & Regional Economic Development
• Land & Real Estate
• Employment & Livelihoods
• Housing
• Urban Infrastructure & Finance

School of Human Development:

• Social Inequality & Stratification
• Urban Culture & Everyday Life
• Urban Health Systems
• Social Protection
• Affordable Housing

School of Systems & Infrastructure

• Infrastructure & Services Governance
• Water Systems
• Energy Systems
• High Performance Buildings
• Resilient Infrastructure & Services

School of Environment & Sustainability:

• Climate Change Adaptation
• Aquatic & Water Systems
• Food and Agricultural Systems
• Ecological Economics
• Climate & Environmental Governance

These themes are expected to develop rapidly over time in terms of depth, coverage, and relative emphasis as the Schools, Centres and Labs expand, and synergies with Practice areas that are currently thinly populated, deepen. Postdocs can become important to widening thematic and research horizons, exploring new areas, and filling in gaps in the current School line-up.

Roles and Responsibilities

Postdoctoral Fellows at IIHS will be affiliated with a particular IIHS School as their primary location. They will be expected to contribute to teaching, research, applied research, and other institutional functions at IIHS. Specific expectations are listed below:

• Teaching: Postdocs at IIHS will receive structured mentoring and training on developing interdisciplinary pedagogical approaches. These will include taught sessions (which could be combined with the doctoral sessions on pedagogy) as well as hands-on experience teaching at IIHS University. Postdocs will be expected to teach in the Master’s, and potentially the Undergraduate programmes. They may co-teach in their first year with their supervisors, mentors, or other faculty. They will also need to offer at least one thematic elective or methods course in the second year of their Postdoc appointment at IIHS, based on programme requirements. They may also be required to assist with doctoral seminars as needed. In addition, they may be expected to help with IIHS Summer/ Winter Schools and Faculty support/ development activities.
• Research and Applied Research: Postdocs should align their research and applied research focus with IIHS research themes/ areas listed above. In addition, they will be expected to contribute to collective research and applied research at the School. In their second year, they will be expected to develop and submit an external facing grant proposal.
• Public talks and/ or broader public engagement: At least one in each year of their appointment.
• Postdocs will need to engage with both the IIHS Research Programme and the Practice/ Applied Research Programme for at least 20 per cent of their time on each. They may also choose to participate in other institutional engagements and roles.
• Successful Postdoctoral Fellows who are interested in joining IIHS, and seem to be a good fit, may be offered the opportunity to apply for positions at IIHS at the end of the two-year programme.
• Fellows who join IIHS may:
  • Become a part of the Faculty (as Assistant Professors) at IIHS University, with their current established relationship with IIHS. This may start as a position in the IIHS Research/ Applied Research programmes or Centres/ Labs, and then transition to a Faculty role at the University based on UGC selection procedures and timelines.
  • Be absorbed in one of the IIHS Schools, Labs or Centres with potential opportunities to teach in the University’s academic programmes.

Institutional Support

The Postdoctoral Programme aims to create a new cohort of faculty, researchers and applied researchers who will work on interdisciplinary questions across all IIHS Schools. It will offer focused training and mentoring for postdoctoral Fellows to develop capacities across the Research and Practice/ Applied Research Programmes at IIHS, developed in conjunction with the five interdisciplinary IIHS Schools, Centres, and Labs. They will also receive institutional support across a range of functions within IIHS as well as access to mentoring from the wider IIHS network. Specific forms of support are listed below:

• Internal research funding support
• Fieldwork/ equipment/ other research support
• Conference funding support (for one international conference annually)
• Focused capacity development that focuses on both pedagogy and research development by enrolling in ongoing IIHS courses or working together with their supervisors
• Assigned mentors within IIHS: In addition to being affiliated to a particular supervisor and School, Postdocs will be assigned a mentor with whom they will work closely. While the supervisor would be from within the team/ School in which they are located, the mentor could come from any other team, School, Programme, Lab, Centre, or Function at IIHS
• Access to the different IIHS Labs such as the Geospatial Lab, Media Lab, Urban Informatics Lab, Word Lab, and the Long Term Urban Ecological Observatory
• Access to the IIHS Library
• Access to infrastructure, recreation, and sports facilities on our Campus

Process

• Application
  Applications to the Postdoctoral Programme will be invited twice a year: in March for a September start, and in October for a January start. For the 2025-26 cycle only, we will have a rolling deadline. Applicants will be required to submit a research/ applied research and teaching statement along with a writing sample and a sample course (this may be something that they have taught before)
• Compensation: Postdoctoral Fellows will be paid INR 1,25,000 per month
• Review:
  • Postdocs will have quarterly check-ins with their Supervisor, six-monthly reviews with their Supervisor and Mentor, and annual reviews with the Committee.
  • Tracks: There would be two potential tracks for Postdoctoral Fellows to follow: Open or Programmed. On either track, a Fellow would be expected to spend at least 20 per cent of their time on Applied Research work.